They galloped quickly to Jonathan's, and he dropped what he was doing to come join the search. They pressed westward, every sign indicating that they were on the right track. Every person they asked along the way had seen a coach driving through their village at break-neck speed. He had also discovered her smashed jewel box in the foyer before he had left, and a trail of hair pins or ear bobs dropped at intervals. He had caught sight of one glinting in the sunlight and thought it a coincidence. But as a second, third and then fouth appeared as he got to Jonathan's he knew his clever wife was trying to tell him something.
His instincts had proven correct, they were heading west. To Ireland, most likely. Perhaps even America if Thomas couldn't reach them in time.
Thomas was stunned at Herbert's audacity. He wasn't making any attempts to conceal himself. He had to be pretty sure there would be no repercussions for his actions...
No, it couldn't be. She hated Herbert now. She loved him, damn it. She was leaving a trail, wanting to be found.There had to be some other game afoot. He was armed, dangerous...
What was the bastard up to?
Paxton would try to blackmail his way out of his problems, the way he always had. Or perhaps he had powerful confederates in Wales or Ireland? In any case, it didn't matter. He would find his wife, and make Herbert pay for ever having crossed his path again.
Two hours later, they were on the cliff road heading toward Milford Haven, thundering down it as fast as the precarious hilly conditions would allow. Thomas was being jounced up and down unmercifully in the saddle, though he hardly noticed the discomfort, so rapt was he in his grim speculation as to Paxton's intentions.
Suddenly Clifford pointed. "Look, Thomas! There's been an accident."
From the angled curve of the coastline as they swept around it he could see the fragments of coach down at the bottom of the cliff, and scanned the area for any sign of life. It was a bleak, desolate spot, and Thomas's heart sank. Nothing was stirring. How could anyone have survived that wreck?
His heart lurched into his mouth when he caught sight of a woman's prostrate form stretched out on the steep slope of the cliff, her head at an unnatural angle. It was a dark-haired woman, wearing a blue velvet cloak...
The cry of anguish burst from his lips. "God, no, oh, please, no!"
He spurred the horse, streaking ahead of his comrades. He dismounted parallel with the body and ran toward the low stone wall. He collapsed onto his knees trembling.
Jonathan and Clifford were hard on his heels. "Good Lord. Is it her?"
"It looks like her," Clifford whispered, staring at the black hair spattered with blood.
"No, no!" Thomas keened savagely. He made to go down the steep precipice, but his two friends dragged him back.
"You can't go down there! It's far too dangerous!" Clifford shouted.
"That's my wife! I have to go to her, I have to help her!"
"She's gone, Thomas!"
"Don't say that, damn it! Don't say that!"
"Jonathan, tell him!" Clifford urged, as the two men struggled.
He shook his head. "I thought you two were gone. I believe in miracles. Maybe she's still alive!"
"Well, I can't find out if I stay here! Herbert can rot in hell for all I care, but I'm getting Charlotte." Thomas tried to lift his leg over the wall.
Clifford stayed him once more. "Then I'm coming with you." He began to strip off his cloak and jacket.
Thomas's tears began to gush forth. "Oh, Charlotte. Oh God, why? I should have been more careful. I should have told you I loved you right from the start..."
A wagon creaked toward them from the opposite direction, carrying several burly farm workers, and a small, jet-haired young woman in a gray gown.
She saw the familiar trio by the wall, the dark-haired man kneeling as if in prayer.
"Thomas! Thomas!" she shouted with joy. She jumped off the back of the cart and began to run.
He looked up, and relief lit his face as he beheld the woman he loved and thought he had lost.
He scrabbled off the ground and caught her as she threw her arms around his neck. They showered each other with kisses, and both wept with relief.
"My darling, my love." He spun her round and round in delight, holding her so close he could feel the thundering of her heart in time with his own.
"My dearest Thomas."
All the men breathed a collective sigh of relief, and began to attend to the business at hand, that of recovering the bodies.
Thomas gripped her by her elbows. "If you're all right, then who--"
"My maid, Mary. I loaned her my cloak. I jumped in time, she didn't. The poor girl," she sniffed.
"God rest her soul," Jonathan sighed.
"We'll have to break the news to her family," Clifford said, staring down at the prone figure and shaking his head pityingly.
"Aye, we will," Thomas said sadly. "We need to see her decently cared for."
"I'll take care of it," Jonathan offered, patting his friend on the shoulder.
"Thank you. Thank you both for everything." Thomas began to tremble anew with delayed shock.
"Darling, what is it?" Charlotte gasped.
"When I thought it was you, well, I nearly went out of my mind with grief," he admitted, kissing her tears away.
"You didn't think I had left willingly, did you?"
"Never for a single second," he reassured her. "I saw all your clues, and knew what you were trying to tell me. I was just so terrified that he had hurt you, would hurt you. I went through three years of war, and in all that time I was never once as frightened as I felt today."
Clifford and Jonathan came closer to shake hands with her. "So glad you're all right, my dear."
Jonathan gave his handsome blond friend a warm smile. "You see, I told you, Clifford, miracles happen every day."
"All right, all right, I believe you now. I still think you were hung over from the night before at Cuidad Rodrigo, but the good Lord seeing fit to spare Charlotte today has made me a believer."
"The important thing is to leave yourself open to the possibilities. I was as skeptical as the next man, as you well know."
Clifford nodded. "As was I, until Fate brought me Vanessa."
"Well, it was a little sleight of hand with the cards too, I seem to recall," Jonathan said with a laugh.
"And my miracle was to overhear Herbert plotting to trick Charlotte into eloping with him. Just think what would have happened if I hadn't."
She shuddered. "Please, don't ever say that again."
"Now it's your turn, Jonathan," Clifford said, laughing. "Let's see what Fate brings you."
He shook his head deprecatingly. "Not for me, I'm afraid. I have my ministry, and Jane. I can hope for a miracle there, but that's all. You'll just have to accept that some people are not destined for matrimony. Please, don't embarrass us all by offering to match-make for me."
"Well, I do have one piece of luck for you, or chance if you want to call it that. The living at home at Brimley is going to become vacant shortly. I just got a letter yesterday from the incumbent. If you want it, it's yours," Thomas said.
Jonathan smiled with delight. "It will be wonderful for us to all be living so close together again. And I am not blind to its material benefits. It's certainly a great deal larger than my present parish at Millcote, and close enough for me to keep both, if I may."
"No reason why not, is there?" Clifford asked.
Jonathan smiled gratefully. "None that I can see, except if Thomas intends to gift my current one."
"No, not at all," the Duke said in all sincerity. "I want you to have both. Especially since you were so foolish as to give everything away, including your title. I mean, Christian charity is all very well and fine in its place, but-"
The vicar offered his hand to shake. "I didn't want a large, prestigious country home, and a seat in the House of Lords. Nor was I willing to let my sisters go without decent dowries. It was a lurch for my mother, and one she n
aturally resented, but the house did not go to her, or my distant cousins. It came to me, to do with as I saw fit. It was fitting to divide it into equal portions, and there is an end on it."
Charlotte could only stare at the handsome young vicar. He too had a title, a decent home, and had given it all up?
"Fine, fine, the point being that you'll have a lovely new home and be close to us. Who knows, you may yet meet the woman of your dreams, just as I've met mine," Thomas said.
Jonathan shook his head. "I'm just relieve that Paxton can never harm any of us again."
"Amen to that," Thomas breathed, hugging his wife to him tenderly.
The young vicar nodded. "So now that it's all over, off you get with your bride. Leave everything to us. I'll see that all is done in a fitting manner."
Thomas clapped him on the shoulder. "Thank you both. I need to get my wife somewhere she can rest. We'll see you later."
He turned to Charlotte and they began to walk down the road together, clinging to one another tightly, supporting each other as they tried to come to terms with the tragic accident. Only when they were alone together out of earshot did he ask urgently, "Are you all right? He didn't-"
She shook her head at once. "No, he didn't. We fought him, Thomas, both of us. I love you. I was damned if I was going to give in to him. So here I am, and here I stay. I'm never going to leave you. I will thank God every day for having preserved both of us in our moment of greatest need."
He looped his arm around her carefully to hold her close. "Amen to that."
She peeped up at him from under her lashes. "And since we've got such a long way to travel back, and I'm just about exhausted, what do you say to a nice country inn, some hot food, and an even hotter bed? I need you so."
He kissed her hard. "I can't think of anything I'd like more. So long as you're in the bed with me, of course."
"As if I would ever want to be anywhere else. I'm truly sorry for poor Mary. A terrible fate befell her, and it could so easily have been me." She gripped him even harder as that thought made her tremble.
"No, don't-"
"But I want to, darling. The truth is, her death has taught me to make the most of every moment. And so I'm not ashamed to admit that though I feel grief, and shock, liFe is meant to be lived without pain or regret. So I have to confess, my love, that in my humble opinion, I've spent far too many lonely nights without you since we were married, my dearest Thomas."
"I'll give you plenty of time to make up for it," he promised, kissing her lightly on the cheek.
"I'm going to hold you to that," she said with a light laugh, as he rubbed himself against her like a large, too sexy cat.
He kissed Charlotte warmly on the mouth before replying. "I'm counting on it, my dearest love."
She was silent for a moment, stroking his cheek. At last she whispered shyly, "In case I forgot to say it, Thomas, thank you for last night. It was truly incredible."
He held his wife as though he would never let her go. "It certainly was for me. Thank you for last night, and all the nights to come. I hope they'll all be even more incredible, thanks to the love we share."
"I pray they will be. You've been so good to me, loved me so tenderly and selflessly even when I was horrid to you. I don't deserve you, Thomas, but I'm going to do my best to be worthy of you in every way," she vowed, and never had she spoken a truer word.
Thomas beamed down at her. "I don't care about that. So long as you're safe and happy that's all that matters," he assured her, lifting her into the waiting wagon.
With a last wave to his friends tending to the accident on the cliff, they headed back down the road to the nearest inn.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Once at the inn, Thomas secured the best room, a bath, and some clean clothes for his wife.
Thomas assisted Charlotte out of her crumpled and torn gown and into a hot tub. He forced her to drink a cup of hot sweet tea while he scrubbed her trembling body.
When she had completed her ablutions, Thomas wrapped her in the nightdress and quilt the innkeeper's wife had kindly supplied. He banked up the fire, and now saw what he had suspected all along, bruises and shock setting in.
Soon she was almost sitting right in the hearth, scarcely able to control her shivering. He hardly dared touch her until she asked softly, "Hold me, darling, please?"
"Of course."
He wrapped his arms around her, breathing in the fragrance of her clean hair. In her pristine white night rail with a high lace collar, she looked like a delicate young girl, innocent and fresh and unspoiled. He thanked God he had been able to keep her that way through a stroke of fate and His Divine Providence.
Thomas stroked her hair back from her brow. "I love you, you know that, dearest, don't you? If you want to talk about it, I'm happy to listen. There is nothing you can't say to me."
"I just can't believe how close I came to death. To losing you. To ending up like poor Jane. Or poor Mary," she sobbed, her voice breaking.
"I know, my love." He nestled his head against hers. "It makes me sick to think of it as well. But for you it's truly over at last. He's dead now. He can never hurt you again. I know how hard this is for you, how absolutely horrifying. But if you allow him to make you fearful for the rest of your life, then he's won. Defeated us.
"I know you're stronger than that, Charlotte. You were strong enough to stand up to me first, and him later when you realized you had been deceived in him, and that you loved me. I can't tell you how sorry I am that I ever doubted your love when you first told me of it. I'm a jealous man, I admit, but it's not your fault. That's my personal failing that I shall have to do my best to overcome."
She gave him a small smile, and stroked his thick black locks back from his face.
"If it's your only fault, I can live with it."
"Alas, I have many others."
Charlotte smiled up at him lovingly. "If you do, I certainly haven't found them yet. Even if I did, how could I ever reproach you for them? I can see it all now. You saved my life my eloping with me. Please forgive me for all my harsh words, petulance. I want to forget Paxton ever existed, so far as I can. Let us both put the past behind us, and be happy."
He nodded. "It will be hard, with my sister Jane and my niece Sophie as bitter reminders of the innocence Paxton tried to destroy."
'Thank God they're truly safe now."
"Aye, from Paxton, but not the rest of the world, alas. It's still best to allow them to live quietly away from the world, though at least I can visit them now without fearing they'll be harmed. I can start being a proper uncle to little Sophie."
"And me a proper auntie. Not like my aunt Margaret."
"God forbid."
She held him close. "I can only imagine how hard this had all been for you. You adore Elizabeth. I have no doubt you were just as close with the sister nearest in age to you. But you have the courage and strength to endure it, and can help Jane and her baby cope with all that's befallen them."
"If I do, it will be because you'll help me to be strong, Charlotte. I know you'll support me, just as you always have. Even when you thought I was a fortune-hunting swine, You were the best helpmeet and partner. And have already shown you intend to devote the same warm enthusiasm to becoming my wife in every sense of the word."
"I want to try. I'm ignorant compared with you, but it's wonderful to learn how to please you. I'd trust you with my life, Thomas. I know you'll be a kind and patient teacher."
He grinned. "Experience is the best teacher, love."
She laughed slightly. "So I'm starting to realise. Just so you know, well, I never felt for Paxton in, um, that way."
She blushed so profusely he couldn't help teasing her. "In what way, exactly? Go on, sweetheart, tell me. Don't be shy. Your pleasure is mine too."
"Er, greedy. Hot and cold, all moist and um, damp. Like I was last night," she admitted, hiding her face against his chest. "And so full of longing that the thought of never seeing you again
made me sick."
He gathered her close. "My poor darling."
She shed a few tears at last. "I was so scared. But I was certain you would come for me. I just knew it, deep in my heart. He said we'd never see each other again. But I was sure you loved me. That our love would triumph over the darkness."
He stroked his hand down her long fall of raven hair. "When I saw your aunt gloating over the burning cottages I knew we had been conspired against. I prayed like I never prayed before. I was so terrified Paxton that he was going to harm you, but even worse, that he was going to kill you. It was all I could think about. It was like a living nightmare." He sighed, and the tears began to fall anew.
The Rakehell Regency Romance Series Boxed Set 1 Page 65
